New Tempest Weather System

Design notes: If you look carefully at the pictures on our Kickstarter teaser page you’ll notice a thin seam in the dome of the Tempest device. We collaborated with a team of shock & vibration engineers from 3M to design a custom elastomeric bumper incorporated in the dome which isolates the rain sensor from everything below it. This allows for increasing sensitivity of the rain sensor to light rain and reducing the issue of false rain due to non-rain vibration in the mounting, etc. Added bonus: should be a significant reduction of device-to-device variability (but we need to test a couple hundred devices to confirm!). Just one of many Tempest design nuggets. :shushing_face:

6 Likes

That’s what I use on my Air and it works very nicely.

That is very nice indeed- keep up the teasers !!

@WFmarketing Any more nuggets you want to share with us?

Will all the sensors be calibrated if needed on a daily basis with the Tempest unit? If I see an wet bias going on in the mid ranges on humidity, do I need to wait on the calibration to take place (if they do) or can I let y’all know so that y’all can make the necessary adjustments?

Will the update interval be the same as the smart weather station or will the Tempest unit have a faster update interval in reporting current conditions?

1 Like

I don’t think it’s going to happen, but it would be very nice if the user had the ability to calibrate the unit’s various sensors as you can with most other PWS. Putting aside the additional convenience that would provide, it would tend to take off some of the burden that inevitably falls on tech support when an owner sees an out of whack sensor reading (assuming the error isn’t related to a defective sensor).

A ‘win win’ IMO. :slight_smile:

@WFmarketing, on question… is the Tempest still going to be North-facing dependent? Will it require the same siting as SKY (making sure the embossed ‘N’ is facing North)? Or are there enough smarts included to have/let the user correct the direction in-app?

–Sam

1 Like

When installed, the device will need to be oriented facing true north with an alignment arrow on the casing. Users can define a degree offset in the app settings right now if you want.

App > Settings > Stations > select station > Manage Devices > SKY > Advanced > Wind Direction Offset . :+1:

1 Like

How would you know how much to correct in software?. There might be ways, but aligning the casing during setup is often just easier.

1 Like

I am wondering about the alignment of the lightning sensor- a lot of us have found the “sweet spot” with the AIR by trial and error -rotating the unit until we got the best detection rate so this will not be possible as the unit needs to be aligned to North or is some other wizadry in the pipeline?

1 Like

you just rotate a 90 degree sideways :slight_smile:

(original) The air doesn’t have to be aligned in any particular direction north/south. As others said, just rotate it 90 degrees and the false readings typically quiet down.

(updated) oops - for the Tempest that has one-unit and north/south DOES matter. Yes. That’s an excellent question ! I’m guessing from the previous WF response that you’d align N/S, tweak as needed if you get false lightning, and need to put in a degree offset in your settings. That’s not that different from any other type of station I guess.

Yes, wizardry in the pipeline with respect to lightning sensor directional orientation.

4 Likes

Thank you for confirming, that is excellent- sure starting to tick all of the boxes and then some… Cheers!!

Will the new tempest device be insensitive to water drops on the wind sensor buttons? My Sky was affected by this issue a couple of times.

I understand! I still have my WF station that I love👍

All devices are now made with a special Super Hydrophobic coating on both the lower and upper wind gap plates (where the transducers are located) to prevent water droplets.

7 Likes

While I appreciate the presence of the embossed “N” to provide orientation, can we make it a contrasting color to make verification of the orientation in situ a heck of a lot easier. Locating a White on White marker when looking up in the sky is difficult.

1 Like

Kickstarter is live. Use this link: got.wf/ks_forum

1 Like

I thought read somewhere that there might be an option for existing owners which re-uses our Hub.

I only see complete purchase options, has the hub changed?

I will certainly pledge for one, just looking to see if there is an owner option, so I do not waste a hub if it is re-usable. Thanks!

The new device hardware will feature a handful of improvements, but for all practical purposes it will do the same thing as your SKY & AIR. The system will also include new AI-powered forecasts which leverages data from your station to dramatically improve accuracy at your exact location. The new forecasts will be rolled out to all WeatherFlow owners in H1’2020 via an app release.

Want to upgrade to Tempest? We’ll be offering all current WeatherFlow station owners an option to purchase the Tempest device ‘ala-carte’ (use your existing HUB) at a price lower than the complete price offered on our KickStarter campaign (all complete packages include a HUB). We’ll let you know details such as cost and how to order once we have the new Tempest devices in stock in February/March 2020.

3 Likes